Lisle loses in state semifinal
EAST PEORIA — Using all 5-foot-11 of her height, Morrison first baseman Danielle Stralow snatched away a possible Lisle walk-off hit.
Surely she took the game's momentum.
Morrison never gave it back.
Lisle lined to Stralow for an inning-ending double play in the bottom of the seventh, and Morrison batted around in a 5-run eighth for a 9-4 win in Friday's Class 2A semifinal at EastSide Centre.
Lisle's Shelby Kretman singled to lead off the seventh in a 4-4 game and was sacrificed to second. Stephanie Petkovsek followed with a shot to first that Stralow snared and fired to second for the third out.
That's how close Lisle came to its first win at the state tournament in three tries.
“It's a game of inches,” Lisle coach Jen Pomatto said. “A few more inches and that ball is in right field and we're celebrating. That's the beauty of softball. Today the inches didn't go our way.”
Stralow, also a volleyball and basketball player, knew her wingspan came in handy. It also helped put Morrison in its first championship game after semifinal losses in 2007, 2008 and 2010.
“It wasn't hit that hard. I just reached up and grabbed it,” Stralow said. “Thank goodness I'm tall.”
Morrison, which didn't manage a baserunner for three innings against Lisle's Bekka Houda, didn't let up in the eighth.
Christie Wiersema doubled off the left-field fence to start it, Kaitlyn Finneran blooped a double and Stralow's infield chopper scored the go-ahead run. After a flyout the Fillies strung together four straight hits.
“We broke out,” Stralow said. “Our momentum kept increasing and the hits just kept coming.”
Morrison (30-7) was the first team to score more than 4 runs off Lisle (28-5). Houda (21-3) came in sporting 11 shutouts and a 0.70 ERA.
Fillies freshman leadoff hitter Shannon Finneran singled for Morrison's first baserunner in the fourth and scored her team's first run, homered in the sixth to tie it 3-3 and singled in a run in the eighth to cap the five-run outburst.
“When I went out to the mound I asked her, ‘What are you throwing that they keep hitting,'” Pomatto said, “and Bekka said ‘Everything.' They're a good-hitting team. They didn't lose much from last year's team. The people they've added hit the ball well.”
On a steamy day in the mid 90s in East Peoria, no bat was hotter than that of Lisle's Mackenzie Buchelt.
Valparaiso recruit Buchelt hit a sinking liner for a double in the first to score Summer Stitt, Melanie Early scoring the second run on a throwing error for a 2-0 lead. Buchelt's towering double off the fence in center scored Early in the third to make it 3-0.
Morrison came back with a run in the fourth and fifth, and 2 in the sixth for a 4-3 lead. But Buchelt drilled a gapper double to start the Lions sixth, and with two outs and two strikes Kellie Brennan singled in pinch runner Abby Tarasecwicz to tie it.
“Mackenzie has been struggling hitting,” Pomatto said, “and she definitely did not today. We joked about what she ate today and I told her she's gonna have to eat it again tomorrow.”
The two schools split two meetings last year, Lisle winning 2-0 at the Lisle Invite and Morrison 3-1 at the NIU supersectional.
Friday's final score was the most one-sided of the three, not at all indicative of the tug-and-pull it was.
“I really don't think the 9-4 score shows how well we played,” Buchelt said. “We came up with the clutch hits when we needed them. Unfortunately things didn't go our way in the end.”
Lisle will play Alton Marquette at 4:30 p.m. today for third place. Pomatto was quick to remind her girls of the opportunity still ahead.
“I told the girls to keep their heads up. We're done with the what-ifs,” Pomatto said. “We had a goal of winning state. That goal is gone. Now we want to come home with a third-place trophy.”